After graduating from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), Armitage initially sought theatre work and was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC). But he turned to film and television roles when he noticed that leading stage roles went to actors with name recognition who could bring in patrons to fill theatres. After twelve years away and having earned that name recognition, Armitage returned to the stage in 2014 playing John Proctor in the highly successful and critically acclaimed production of The Crucible at The Old Vic.[2][3]

One of Armitage's trademarks is his baritone voice,[4] which he has employed as a voice actor since 2006. While working on the TV show Robin Hood, he was asked to record audiobooks for the first season of that series. Since then, Armitage has recorded many notable audiobooks as well as worked as a narrator on many TV and radio shows and adverts. His flair for speaking in a multitude of dialects, accents and voices has garnered Armitage numerous accolades for his narration skills, including the 2014 Best Audiobook of the Year Award from Audible.com for his recording of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: A Novel.

Armitage was born in Leicester, England, the younger son of Margaret, a secretary, and John Armitage, an engineer. Richard has an older brother named Chris.[5] He attended Huncote Community Primary School in Huncote, Blaby District, Leicestershire and began middle school at the local comprehensive school, Brockington College in Enderby. At Brockington, Armitage pursued his interest in music - playing the cello in school and local orchestras, and learning how to play the flute. But by fourteen, having secured a grant from the Leicestershire Authority, he successfully persuaded his mother to allow him to transfer to Pattison College in Coventry, an independent boarding school specializing in the Performing Arts so that he could focus on drama and dance.[6][7][8] Armitage has expressed gratitude for the lessons and opportunities Pattison College provided, "It...instilled me with a discipline that has stood me in good stead - never to be late, to know your lines and to be professional."[9] By the time he graduated, not only had he gained A Levels in music and English,[10] Armitage had gained acting experience in local amateur and professional productions such as Showboat, Half a Sixpence, Orpheus and the Underworld (as Bacchus) and The Hobbit (as an Elf) at the New Alexandra Theatre (aka "The Alex"), Birmingham.[9]

By 1992, he began to doubt if musical theatre was the right career path, so he enrolled at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) in 1993 to further study acting.[14][15] "I needed to do something a bit more truthful than musical theatre. For me it was a bit too theatrical and all about standing on stage and showing off. I was looking for something else, so that’s why I went back to drama school."[16]

That same year Armitage appeared in his first major television role, as John Standring in the BBC drama Sparkhouse (2002). "It was the first time I went to an audition in character. It was a minor role but it was something I really got my teeth into... I couldn't go back. I knew I had to approach everything the same way."[19] After this he took supporting roles in the TV productions of Between the Sheets, Cold Feet (series 5), and Ultimate Force (Series 2).

In Spring 2004, Armitage landed his first leading role as textile mill owner John Thornton in the BBC adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's North & South. The director and producers took a chance casting a little-known actor for their leading man (he was the first actor to audition for the role and the last person cast),[20] but their instincts proved correct. North & South was an unexpected success and Armitage became an overnight sensation in Britain.[21] The BBC message boards crashed shortly after the telecast as a result of chatter about him[14] and he was hailed as the new "Mr. Darcy"[22][23] (referring to Colin Firth's "Mr Darcy" whom many regard as the definitive romantic leading man). Armitage never perceived John Thornton as the ideal romantic leading man role and was surprised by the overwhelming response.[24] Instead, he said that he felt personally drawn to the role, as his father's family had been weavers. He cited Thornton's dualism as drawing him to the character. "The dichotomy between the powerful, almost monstrous, entrepreneur and this kind of vulnerable boy is exciting for me to look at."[20]

In 2006, Armitage was cast as Guy of Gisborne in the BBC series Robin Hood.[14] "In order to sustain the character of Guy, you have to find the conflict within him. He's constantly pulled between good and evil, between who he wants to be and who he actually is. He could have been a good man, but he is forever dragged down by his fatal flaw – that he wants glory at all costs."[25] Approaching the third series, he said, "I do love playing him, but with a character like Gisborne, if you give him what he needs, then in a way, it's over. That character is only interesting when he isn't getting what he wants, whether it's power, money or the girl."[26] The third and final series of Robin Hood started on 28 March 2009.

Armitage joined the cast of Spooks as the character Lucas North for series 7, which began on 27 October 2008 in the UK. Armitage notes that the character, who spent eight years in a Russian prison, has a personable exterior, but is psychologically damaged.[27] "I love films with a combination of action and good characters. That's why Lucas is interesting as I get to play someone with a complex psychology who goes out there and tries to save the world."[28] During the filming of series 7 Armitage allowed himself to be subjected to waterboarding to film a flashback sequence.[29] In July 2010, Armitage completed filming of series 9, his final series. In the series, his character's real name was revealed as John Bateman, who had murdered the real Lucas North shortly before North began employment with MI5. Bateman had stolen North's identity and taken his place.[30]

On 20 May 2009, Armitage appeared in the BBC1 drama Moving On as John Mulligan.

In May 2010 he starred as former S.A.S. trooper John Porter in Strike Back (also known as Chris Ryan's Strike Back) for Sky1. Armitage found the main challenge of the role was to show how the character resolved being a trained killer with having a family and home life.[31] "In the end it was the character I was attracted to, the story of a man who makes a decision under pressure and that decision has a knock-on effect on his whole life," he said. "He goes in search of atonement still believing he did the right thing even though it cost the lives of three of his friends... There's anger and there's injustice. It's like, 'I did the right thing, with the wrong outcome.'"[32]

Sky1 and Cinemax commissioned a second series of Strike Back called Strike Back: Project Dawn. It began broadcasting in August 2011.[33] Because of his commitments to filming The Hobbit, Armitage declined starring in the second series and only appeared as a guest star in the first episode.[34]

Ironically, it was his role as John Porter that led to his casting in Captain America: The First Avenger. US casting agents noticed posters of him as John Porter all over London. Although unknown to them, they offered him the role of Nazi spy Heinz Kruger because he looked the part. Armitage accepted and shot his scenes in the autumn of 2010, once filming wrapped on Spooks, series 9. (The film was released in July 2011).[35]

In October 2010, Peter Jackson announced Armitage was cast as Thorin Oakenshield in the three-film production of The Hobbit.[36] Principal photography ran from March 2011 to July 2012 (broken into three filming blocks with breaks in-between) and pick-ups were shot in the summer of 2013 .[37] All three films were released in December, starting with The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey in 2012, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug in 2013 and The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies in 2014. Armitage thought it was a wonderful opportunity, as he grew up reading the books. Coincidentally, one of his first stage roles was playing an elf in a production of The Hobbit at the "Alex" Theatre in Birmingham.[38] He describes the character of Thorin as being complex and flawed, "somebody that had doubts and that had fears, and there was a gentle side to him and a very perhaps lonely side to him."[39] He notes the scene with Balin in Bag End shows the character's inner sensitivity and fear of failure, "failing where his father and his grandfather had failed as well."[39]

Immediately after filming wrapped on The Hobbit, Armitage flew to Detroit, Michigan to film Into the Storm from July to September 2012.[40][41] He starred as Gary Fuller, a high school Vice Principal with two teenage sons.[42] The film from New Line was released in August 2014.[40][43]

In March 2014, he began filming an adaptation of Bernard Hare's memoir Urban Grimshaw and the Shed Crew.[17][44] He plays "Chop" (the author's nickname), an ex-social worker, drunk and drug addict in Britain's lowerclass who befriends the hardened delinquent Urban.[45][46] No release date has been set.

Armitage appeared as John Proctor in The Old Vic's production of Arthur Miller's The Crucible. Directed by Yael Farber and performed in the round, the play ran from 21 June to 13 September 2014.[47] The production drew an unprecedented amount of 5-star reviews and was a commercial success. Armitage was awarded Best Leading Actor in a New Production of a Play by Broadway World:UK Awards 2014 for his performance.[48] Due to overwhelming worldwide demand to see the production, Digital Theatre captured the live performance to bring The Crucible to cinemas and for digital download. It was screened at cinemas on 4 and 7 December 2014 in the UK and Ireland, with further screenings in other selected territories in February 2015.[2][3] (Due to copyright issues, the film cannot be screened at North American cinemas but will be available for digital download.)

In October 2014, Armitage began filming Sleepwalker, a psychological thriller from writer Jack Olsen and director Elliott Lester. He plays Dr. Scott White, a senior MD at a sleep research center. No release date has been set.[49][50]

He was first introduced to voice work while working on the TV drama Robin Hood in 2006. The BBC was publishing novels of the first four episodes of series one and asked Armitage to record the audiobook versions. In recent years, Armitage has also performed a great deal of voice work, such as reading poetry for various radio programmes and starring as Robert Lovelace in BBC Radio 4's production of Clarissa: A History of a Young Lady in April 2010. He has recorded eleven audio books: six based on BBC's "Robin Hood", Bernard Cornwell's The Lords of the North, three Georgette Heyer novels for Naxos AudioBooks (Sylvester, or the Wicked Uncle, Venetia, and The Convenient Marriage) and Hamlet, Prince of Denmark: A Novel. He has narrated television documentaries such as Homes From Hell, Empire's Children, Too Poor for Posh School?, The Great Sperm Race, Forest Elephants: Rumble in the Jungle, Surgery School, and Elsa: The Lioness That Changed the World. In 2011, he provided the narration for a series about the Royal Navy flagship HMS Ark Royal,[56]125 Years of Wimbledon: You Cannot Be Serious, and Fraud Squad. He has also provided the voice over for many TV and radio advertisements.

He was hoping to star in a drama based on Richard III. Armitage was born on the anniversary of the Battle of Bosworth Field, where Richard III was killed. "I believe it is a great story, a socio-political thriller, a love story and a dynastic tragedy", he said.[57] He thinks the story has the potential to be told as a twenty-episode miniseries. A script has been in development since 2010 and "a lot of people... are interested [in producing it], but there is no one that will step on the gas."[58] Recently Armitage stated that he is still interested in the project, though he has reservations that he might be too tall and too old to play Richard III.

Armitage has described himself as a method actor. "Yeah, I suppose I am. In a way it's slightly lazy because it means you don't have to pretend – you just have to believe. As much as it's possible to be like that I suppose I kind of do step in and out, I'm not one of these people that can't talk to other people because I'm in my character, but I kind of do stay with the character, yeah. He's always there. It's like marinating something – you're sitting in a marinade the whole time."[59] He has also spoken of dreaming in character while playing John Porter and Thorin Oakenshield.[60][61] However, recently he rejected the label of "method actor". "I think I'm a concentrating actor. So in order to do my work in the course of a day, particularly with a character like this I have to concentrate. So it's about staying in the scene, staying with my head in the scene and attempting to keep the character with me. It doesn't mean I can't have a conversation or go and make a cup of coffee. But I actually stay with the character for 18 months."[62]

He frequently speaks of developing and being drawn to dualism in his characters.[58] "If I’m offered the role of the hero, I immediately look for the antihero within!... I see everything in terms of an outer skin and an inner skin."[63] He creates "character diaries" with entire biographies for the characters he plays. "It was important to me to put in a background for my character that would be useful for the whole journey. A lot of that is secret and no one gets to read that. It's what is useful to me. If you are playing something long running and a role that has a future [beyond the initial series], it's almost like you have to plant a garden which you will need to come back to at some point. If you don't put in early, it can jar with you."[16]